While discussing with my advisors, I found myself drawn to the use of language when referring to migrants in America. As described in one of my references, “immigrant groups, regardless of their country of origin, were perceived as a threat at the time of their arrival in the United States”(Wei et al., 2019). However, while this idea of threat has declined over time for most white migrants, it actively persists with migrants of color. Alongside this, I have noticed how there has been an evolution of language targeting migrants of color to otherize them. With this realization, I decided to focus on the extent that which migrants of color, specifically Mexican migrants, are otherized in the United States. For this, I researched the question “How does society use language to otherize migrants of color within the United States?”. Within my research, I found that the ways society uses language to otherize migrants of color can fall into two categories. The first category is within the English language. This is seen in how certain terms and words have emerged specifically to express the supposed terror that migrants of color bring to America. Additionally, this is shown by how phrases have been formed to invalidate their experience and dehumanize them. The second category is how English is used in contrast to the native language of the migrant (in my case Spanish) to otherize those who may not speak the language of the “in-group”. This contributes to English dominance although the United States does not have an official language. While this research is just preliminary and relies heavily on already published work, I would look into the possibility of doing some of this research myself in the future.
Author: Debra Olabode
Advisors: Joseph Johnson, Psychology
Zara Torlone, Classics
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